Guitar
SKU:
UT.CH-385
Composed by
John W. Duarte. Edited by
Isabel Siewers.
Classical. Score. Ut
Orpheus #CH 385.
Published by Ut Orpheus
(UT.CH-385).
ISBN
9790215328174. 9 x 12
inches.
The
Sonatina del Sur
(Sonatina of the
South) was
commissioned by Isabel
Siewersâ?? mother as a
34th birthday present for
her daughter. Its music
pays token, rather than
imitative, homage to
South American music.
Thus the sonata form
first movement, whose
brief development section
accounts for the
workâ??s
â??diminutiveâ?? title,
merely hints at
syncopations that are as
common in South America
as they are in Europe.
The Canción de
cuna (Cradle Song) is
unusual in the fact that
it is played entirely in
natural harmonics â?? no
string touches a fret
from start to finish, a
compositional challenge I
had long planned to face.
The third movement was
originally titled
Milonga, but when
the dedicatee said that,
although it has a South
American air over it, and
the rhythm is right, it
was not really like a
milonga, it was renamed!
Perhaps, though, it
captures a little of the
happy and
lightness-of-touch
character of its eponym.
The Danza negra,
another common South
American genre, is
energetic, with a variety
of percussive gestures
that demand extreme
agility on the part of
the performer.
South. Â 
